Aims To study whether the preparation procedure, and its acidic heating conditions, used by heroin users to prepare for intravenous administration affects final composition of fluid be injected. Methods Samples from different seizures illegal provided Norwegian police were prepared adding water ascorbic acid before under controlled conditions in laboratory. Further, three with amounts or citric...

Glucuronidation is a major detoxification pathway for endogenous and exogenous compounds in mammals that results in the intracellular formation of polar metabolites, requiring specialized transporters to cross biological membranes. By using morphine as a model aglycone, we demonstrate that multidrug resistance protein 3 (MRP3/ABCC3), a protein present in the basolateral membrane of polarized ce...

In membranes from rat brain striatum, opiate agonists stimulated low-K GTPase. Half-maximal enhancement of enzyme activity was obtained with 0. 09m microM morphine and 3.8 microM levorphanol. This order of potency corresponded to that of the affinities of these compounds in binding to opiate receptor. The effect was inhibited by the antagonist naloxone. As shown by the use of the enantiomers le...

We investigated the effects of (R)-(-)-5-methyl-1-nicotinoyl-2-pyrazoline (MS-153), which is reported to accelerate glutamate uptake, on the development of morphine tolerance and physical dependence in mice. For the induction of morphine tolerance and dependence, mice were twice daily treated with morphine (10-45 mg/kg, s.c.) for 5 days. First, co-administration of MS-153 (12.5 mg/kg, s.c.) did...

Our previous studies have demonstrated that an increase in intracellular levels of Ca(2+) in neurons is an important component of both the antinociception produced by morphine and morphine's tolerance. The present study tested the hypothesis that the Ca(2+) signaling second messenger, cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR), derived from CD38 activation participates in morphine antinociception and tolerance....

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Nitric oxide (NO) plays a role in thermoregulation and growth of protozoa. This work aimed to add the molecule NO in physiology of protozoa in contact with abused narcotic substances. MATERIALS AND METHODS A sedative drug, morphine, was infused into a cell chamber containing Paramecia. The cell response to the drug was recorded promptly after drug infusion using a po...

BACKGROUND In recent years, commercial bath salts products containing synthetic cathinone analogues have emerged as illicit drugs of abuse. These cathinones are structurally similar to the psychostimulants 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and methamphetamine (METH), and produce their effects via interactions with monoamine transporters, where smaller compounds (e.g., mephedrone) are amp...

We studied the effects of the commonly used -opioid receptor agonists morphine, oxycodone, methadone and the enantiomers of methadone in thermal and mechanical models of acute pain and in the spinal nerve ligation model of neuropathic pain in rats. Subcutaneous administration of morphine, oxycodone, and methadone produced a dose-dependent antinociceptive effect in the tail flick, hotplate, and ...

Pain is one of the most distressing post-operative consequences of surgeries. Opioids have been the mainstay in providing pain relief. Morphine is the considered to be the “gold standard” amongst opioids as an analgesic. Nalbuphine, a synthetic opioid agonist/antagonist has analgesic potency almost equivalent to that of morphine on a milligram basis and fewer complications like respiratory depr...